Big game hunters are faced with the problem of dressing a kill after a successful hunt. This requires removal of the visceral of the animal from the body cavity.
Under normal practice, the big game animal (deer, elk, moose, antelope, etc) is first laid out on its back or suspended by its legs and the animal's pelvic bone and sternum are broken. Then the animal is cut open from the very bottom of the body cavity to the very top.
After this, the messy and somewhat dangerous job of removing the entrails begins. In normal practice, the hunter will insert a knife into the body cavity held in one hand while using the other hand to move the internal organs about, looking for places which may be easily cut so as to allow larger body parts to be removed: places such as ligaments, connections, tubes and so on. Needless to say, this is a bloody and unpleasant process. Worse, while the hunter is struggling with uncooperative and slippery organs, the hunter is very prone to cutting themselves on the grabbing hand with the knife held in the other hand. Even minor cuts received while the hands are inside of an animal carcass may be considered unhygienic.
Various solutions have been proposed.
A search of the USPTO collection reveals certain common types of solutions to the problem may be found in class 452 (Butchery) or class 30 (Cutlery).
One common type of solution is the modification of the knife blade, hopefully to render it more safe. Examples of this type of device include U.S. Pat. No. 1,614,772 issued Jan. 18, 1927 to A. Bambini et al, U.S. Pat. No. 1,788,656 issued Jan. 13, 1931 to R. E. Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 2,906,021 issued Sep. 29, 1959 to W. V. Cromoga, U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,751 issued Apr. 22, 1980 to Egbert is another such example, as are U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,432 issued Aug. 26, 1986 to Montgomery, U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,417 issued Jul. 28, 1987 to Henslin et al for a device useful for splitting pelvic bones, U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,920 issued Nov. 24, 1987 to Montgomery, U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,416 issued Aug. 16, 1988 to Copeland, U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,635 issued Feb. 7, 1995 to Sheba, U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,042 to Monson on Sep. 26, 1995 for another pelvic splitting device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,332 issued Feb. 13, 1996 to Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,548 issued to Jones et al on Nov. 25, 1997 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,312 issued Aug. 28, 2001 to Elrod et al.
Such knives deal with cutting implements and thus are not really relevant to the idea of securing a windpipe and pulling on it.
Another common type of solution proposes mechanical devices suitable to slaughterhouse facilities and mass production of dressed animals. Examples of this type of device include U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,148 issued Dec. 31, 1985 to Bonuchi et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,521 issued Aug. 27, 1996 to van den Nieuwelaar et al and U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,478 issued Nov. 2, 2004 in the name of the same inventor (van den Nieuwelaar et al) and also U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,595 issued Feb. 27, 2001 to Volk et al.
Such factory equipment devices are not relevant to hunting and teach away from items a hunter might usefully carry hunting.
Other patents show devices which may be useful to hunters in certain situations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,298 to Bartlett on Jul. 29, 2003, teaches a field dressing device of the multi-tool type having claws for grabbing parts of the viscera, cutting blades and so on and so forth.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,761 issued Aug. 14, 1973 to Weiland teaches an eviscerating tool having a plurality of hooks and barbs thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,080 issued Jul. 24, 1984 to Olson teaches another multi-tool device having claws and the like for grabbing animal entrails, as does U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,751 issued Jul. 16, 1985 to Bremer et al, a co-inventor with the inventor of the previous item.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,758 issued Apr. 2, 2002 to Nielsen et al teaches a device having worm drive actuated jaws.
These device teach away from the present invention in being large, complex devices having multiple moving parts, jaws, claws, hooks and the like.
It would be preferable to provide an extremely straightforward device of light weight and quick utility having few or no moving parts, a device capable of quick manufacture at low cost.